BP plans North Sea field
OIL major BP yesterday said it planned to launch a £3bn development of a North Sea field, despite the government’s decision to raid the profits of firms’ operating in the waters.
As part of one of the biggest investments in the North Sea in the last 10 years, BP said it would install a new floating production platform to tap the Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields to the west of the Shetland Islands.
BP said the fields, which have produced nearly 400m barrels of oil since they started production in 1998, had around 450m barrels still to produce.
Justine Greening, economic secretary to the Treasury, said the investment showed the North Sea was still attractive to oil companies even after the UK upped taxes earlier in the year.
BP is under pressure to demonstrate its strategy to shareholders, after a planned $16bn shares swap and Arctic exploration deal with Russia’s Rosneft fell apart earlier this year.